Biorefining is an exceedingly growing research area in our university. We have developed techniques for refining for nearly 15 years. Key techniques covered by us include slow pyrolysis and therman processing. Speficially, we are interested in molecules separated from biomasses utilizing these techniques. Our biorefining include both continuous and batch processes, and our analysis techniques are suitable for solid, liquid or gaseous fractions.
Infrastructure and services
Materials testing
Material characterization methods are complemented by e.g. microCT and material testing devices. Most important research topics include tissue-material interactions, surface structures and compositional analyses.
- Biaxial testing device (model 8874; Instron Co, High Wycombe, UK)
- Hip joint simulator (Shore Western)
- Precision materials testing (Lloyd LFPlus 1 kN, Lloyd Instruments, UK)
- Impedance testing
- Ultrasound testing
- Infrared camera
- Roughness measurement
- Zeta potential measurement device (SurPASS; Anton Paar GmbH, Graz, Austria)
- UV-VIS spectrophotometer (Lambda 25; Perkin Elmer, Waltham, MA, USA)
Biorefining
The pyrolysis process (also known as dry distillation) can be used to treat organic starting materials. The process produces carbon, liquid, and gas fractions. All of these fractions can be studied with measuring devices presented elsewhere. The equipment can be used to condense the gases generated in the process into a liquid from several stages of the process.
The method enables accurate study of the molecules produced by pyrolysis process and thus provides information on the chemistry of the starting material as well as opens pathways for the production of bio-based molecules.
Kannettava NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Ydinmagneettinen resonanssi)
- NMR spektroskopiaa käytetään yleisesti niin tunnettujen kuin tuntemattomienkin orgaanisten yhdisteiden tunnistamiseen ja niiden pitoisuuksien määrittämiseen. Yhteistyössä farmasian laitoksen kanssa (prof. Jouko Vepsäläinen) käytössämme on myös ns. high-end NMR-laitteistot.